An April 7 auction has been set for the assets of West Bend-based Prism Manufacturing, which filed for receivership in February.
Receiver Ronald Carlson of Forseti Consulting in Pewaukee will be holding the auction at the Brookfield Sheraton. He said there has been potential interest from a number of parties. He is anticipating the sale of the company on an ongoing basis and said any purchaser would likely hire a substantial number of employees.
“The people who’ve been looking at it are all industry people,” said John Zbiegien, Prism general manager. Prism, located at 4991 Hron Road, specializes in precision screw machining and engineering for lawn and garden, conveying, marine, heavy machinery, industrial equipment and hydraulics markets.
Zbiegien said the “cold reality” is that the company had to file for Chapter 128 receivership, adding the company was owned by an outside investor who decided to cut ties with the business.
“The warm side of it is we’ve got a receiver’s agent that’s working diligently to market the place,” he said.
Court records show the company had nearly $2.5 million in debts as of Jan. 31. That included $1.98 million owed to Port Washington State Bank, almost $373,000 in accounts payable and just less than $58,000 in wages. More than 20 claims have been submitted to date.
Zbiegien said the company has 22 full-time employees. Prism has been able to maintain operations during receivership by working with the bank, he said, adding that the goal is to keep customers satisfied moving forward.
